If sin is only an act of the free will and precipitated by choice alone, then what of common curse? Why do I suffer the curse of having to work all the days of my life by the sweat of my brow (and my wife experience the pain of childbirth)? If it only affects Adam in a very real sense, what then is the significance of Adam's sin? Why is it then when we come to Christ that He has promised us an abridgment (to some extant) of the common curse?
Common curse besides being taught by Scripture is seen empirically in that most people do not like to work hard. Most people do not want responsibility. Pareto's Law says that 20% of the people own 80% of the wealth. The 20-80 rule has been applied to many fields concerning man. It sometimes may be 10-90 or 30-70 but it does not deviate very far from 20-80. It can be seen in any organization that 20% of the people accomplish 80% of the work. Sorrow has driven man to despise God-glorifying work.
God has promised that there will always be a remnant (common grace). This is the 20%. He also says that some follow the law even though they do not know it. It can be said with some certainty that humanity would have resorted to utter chaos had it not been for the enterprising of the 20% in commerce and leadership. "Entropy" takes its toll. The Holy Spirit's work in restraining evil and the maintenance of the remnant is the only reason we are where we are today.
Classical theism shows a continuity between the Fall of mankind with Adam and the redemption of mankind by the second Adam. Then over time the effects of the fall from paradise are reversed. We began in paradise then were banished. But just like Paradise Lost ends we too "shalt possess A Paradise within."
We are told to do everything for the glory of God. But if the whatsoever applies to everything then it applies to the previously sorrowful labors. Women too may be saved in childbirth (ask my wife, the first birth was a bit rough but the second...well, read Christ Centered Childbirth). It is purported that nations will bow the knee to Christ and the wolf shall dwell with the lamb as the effects of sin in this world are removed as the Gospel goes forth as a two-edged sword smiting the nations.
If every sin is only an act of the will then every sin is itself a fall of man and Adam's fall would not have the implications that classical theists say it has and that Romans says the second Adam came to change.
"For if Adam's fall did not, or did only in part, deprive the will of the freedom and power to do good, and original sin did not consist either in a culpable loss of an original supernatural gift, then in that same measure grace became dispensible and Christianity was robbed of its absolute character." (Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Vol3 Sin and Salvation in Christ, page 44)
By absolute character, Bavinck is referring to the fact that our salvation is monergistic or 100% dependent on the grace of God and that He saves us; our will in no way aiding the salvation of our souls.
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